Originally
published by Wiley and Putnam in two volumes—the first series in October 1845 and
the second in February 1846—for the Library of American Books series, The Wigwam and the Cabin is a collection
of border stories about the southwestern frontier. Simms best summarized the collection in a
dedicatory letter to his father-in-law for the 1856 Redfield edition: “One word
for the material of these legends. It is
local, sectional—and to be national
in literature, one must needs be sectional. No one mind can fully or fairly illustrate
the characteristics of any great ...